Cradle to the Grave
by District11-Olive
Summary: "Riah does not move and I cannot get up or get to her so I do nothing but watch. Watch her with a helpless passion that only a mother could have, and watch the men out of the corner of my eye as they carry away my son." Welcome to the 100th Hunger Games!
1. Time Part One

**Princess of China by Coldplay**

_Once upon a time we fell apart_

_You're holding in your hands the two halves of my heart_

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**Jovia Alms, District Seven Citizen**

"Who are you?" I breathe when my door peels open in response to the harsh, frantic knocking. Two men in black suits with scowls and colored faces plague my doorstep. My lungs sink into my stomach as I, now shaking, match their stares, my hand on the wooden frame shivering in the fresh fall air.

"We have orders from President Cyrus," one of the men says mechanically, as if he were simply reading another pointless announcement from the mayor instead of demanding entry into my home. His face is blank and unmoving, but the fluctuating wind flings his dark hair every which way so that he looks more like a jester than a glaring messenger. "We demand entry, ma'am, I hold the papers to allow us to do so."

"What do you want, I will get it for you," I try, my voice refusing to steady in the presence of the two obviously important men.

"I would prefer to retrieve it myself, ma'am."

I nod lamely, my eyes falling to the concrete doorstep while my heart threatens to do the same. The other man, who still remains silent, pushes past my arm and into my home. Though I have technically allowed them both entry, it still feels as though I am being violated.

The tallest of the two men, the one that spoke to me, eyes me suspiciously as if at any moment I might pull a weapon out of my apron and attack them both. My three year old daughter, Riah, slips out of the kitchen to check on me and upon seeing the two strange men in our main room, rushes to my waiting arms. I lift her up to rest by my shoulder and unlike usual she doesn't struggle. Her dark eyes mimic the movements of the two strangers as they shuffle across our floor. Not knowing what else to do, and too afraid to move for fear they might be armed, I dig my fingernails into the opposite hand and stare along with my daughter.

After a few minutes of this I am unable to take the silence. "If there is something you need I will gladly fetch it for you," I try again and the tall man who has remained closest to me and Riah holds him arm out to silence me. I comply and bury my lips in Riah's short hair though she barely takes notice. The shorter man peers into the kitchen, clearly looking for something but I have not the slightest idea what. He takes one step towards me with a question appearing on the tip of his nose, but quickly turns around as if he has only just remembered something.

"You can't go in there!" Riah cries out as the man slips into the before closed door at the edge of the main room. I try and put my hand over her mouth but she won't have it, turning her face away instinctively. "They're gonna wake Euan! That's not allowed!"

I hold Riah closer as she struggles in my grip, the ferocity in her that I am used to. My eyes, though, never leave the door where the man disappeared. My youngest child's room where he has been sleeping since just after lunch. Are they here because of my son? Has he gone missing and I simply have not noticed? Have they found him and suspect he is mine but simply need proof enough to take him away from me? My breaths feel strangled as I hiccup, trying to calm myself so that Riah will not get any more worked up. That cannot be it, if not for the fact that I just checked on him a few moments before the men arrived than because children going missing at any time of day in District Seven is not uncommon. People get desperate, people are cruel, but there is no one to blame for the except the people that put them in that position.

Suddenly a familiar child's scream breaks the silence that my mind created and I nearly fall with Riah in my hands as I scramble forward to get to my child. The tall man grabs me around the back and holds me in a bear hug as I kick and punch at him with all the energy I have inside of me. The short man comes out, holding my screaming son in a cloth sling around his neck. The man doesn't look at all effected by the frightened child around his throat, and he approaches my front door as if nothing were out of the ordinary and he were merely leaving from a company dinner.

I hear yelling and crying and I know it might be Euan but some of it is my own, even Riah is screaming and I'm sure that she doesn't even understand why. I want to stop fighting this man and scaring my baby girl but my body and mind are now separate and my legs continue to kick and my fists keep on meeting skin until a feel a dull pain in my side and I hit the floor like a sack of flour, no longer fighting.

I am unable to move my head or hear my screams but I see everything in perfect clarity, my daughter clasping on to the short man's pant leg and biting into him with her three sprung teeth. He kicks her off of him and sends her flying across the room where her head slams hollowly into a bookshelf and everything in me wants to scream all over again but I cannot. Riah does not move and I cannot get up or get to her so I do nothing but watch. Watch her with a helpless passion that only a mother could have, and watch the men out of the corner of my eye as they carry away my son.

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**This is an SYOT for the 100****th**** Hunger Games (A Quarter Quell, yes), all spots have been filled as of now and I ask any of you who have not already done so to please submit your reserved slot or I may have to reopen it.**

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**This is an extension of canon that I have created in which President Cyrus has taken over and reinstated the Hunger Games after the death of President Paylor. I would advise you to read the prologue for **_**Written In Ice **_**and **_**Streets I Know**_** before submitting your tribute but in case you are still confused, here is the rundown.**

**This is the 100****th**** Hunger Games**

**District Twelve has been destroyed, so they nor District Thirteen will have tributes in the Hunger Games**

**Due to acts of Rebellion in the Capitol, the Capitol will now also send in two tributes to the Hunger Games**

**All previous rules regarding age, industry, etc are back in place.**

**Careers are only for districts One and Two**

**Since this is a Quarter Quell, there is a twist which has only been hinted at above (will be revealed in full next chapter)**

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**If you have any questions, please ask me in PM. I will try and respond right away.**

**Other than that,**

**Welcome to **_**Cradle to the Grave**_


	2. Time Part Two

**Princess of China by Coldplay**

_Once upon a time somebody ran_

_Somebody ran away saying fast as I can_

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**President Cyrus, Capitol**

"This is cruel and stupid."

"Oh don't say that, you know it's a wonderful idea, darling," I coo, stroking her cheek affectionately. She slaps my hand away and looks at me with vacant eyes. I knew she would not take kindly to the decision, but what could she expect me to do... after all, the Quells are chosen from the same box as in the before. I am merely filling the orders of Presidents far older than I. Who am I to disrupt their ploys?

"You aren't going to go through with it, are you?"

"Of course I am, it is what was created before I was even made, what kind of human am I to go against the wishes of our ancestors?" I growl, pulling in closer to her.

"You are a man with a conscious, or a heart," she whimpers.

"Please, do not try that route again, my dear. The Quell will go on as planned, the children have been picked up and are being prepared for the big day as we speak, there is no going back I'm afraid," I remind her. She gets up from the bed and pulls on the plush, red robe hanging over the bedpost. I follow suit and push my feet into the slippers beside the bed. She sits at the side of the mattress and I step over to join her, crouching down in front of her so that our noses are nearly touching.

"They're just children, infants even," she breathes and right there and then I nearly give in. But all the preparations have already been made. I cannot go back on my proclamation now, what would the Gamemakers think of me if I force them to remake the plans they have spent months preparing?

"They are district children, the infants of poor families that have nothing more planned for them than to force them into work. We are doing them a favour if anything, creating fame for them where there would never have been any." I hold on to her thin shoulders and force her eyes to look at mine, to understand that what I am doing is good, or at least as good as I can make it to be.

"Tell me how it will work," she coughs and I raise an eyebrow in surprise. It was not just yesterday that she refused to hear anything of my plans for the Quarter Quell. This is a step towards the future, a step towards her acceptance of my decisions and of myself. It will be her first Hunger Games as my wife, she must be ready for every question possible with an appropriate response. If it is discovered that my lady opposes the use of infants in my Quarter Quell then I will lose all the support I have worked so hard to achieve. For the first time in a long while, I feel completely vulnerable to a single person. There has always been the threat of the masses, but no one person has ever held so much power over me, and that must be remedied.

"It is better you not know, not involve yourself if you wish," I say, brushing off her request with the hopes that she will press on.

"No, I am your wife. I must know, Cyrus. I will be asked my opinion and how am I to give that if I am in the dark about your antics?" So she is smarter than I believed, well not exactly. I chose her because of not only her beauty and youth, but of her cleverness. I want her to understand more than anything, and I want her to accept that this is what must go on or else my position would crumble.

"So you are right," I begin. "The card read, in more words be it, that to remind the rebels that even the youngest of children were not left unaffected by the Dark Days, each of the twenty-four tributes will be accompanied by a child between the ages of zero and four. In order for the child to live, their watcher must as well. Though the regular tributes may survive without the accompaniment. It is meant to horrify the districts, it is meant to quell possible rebellion. For the sake of the children who would die within it."

"It is not right," she repeats for what feels like the hundredth time.

"Maybe not in all aspects, but what's wrong is sometimes what is necessary," I say, rubbing her shoulder as if she were a small child in need of comfort. "That, you will understand sooner rather than later, my dear."

"Is there anything that I could say to change your mind, Cyrus?" She asks.

"Not one single thing," I respond.

"What if I told you I was pregnant?" She says, shying her eyes away from mine. My hand clenches into her shoulder and I feel as though I cannot breathe, let alone think or speak. I am shaking, I can feel that clearly. Or maybe it is only because I am holding onto my wife.

"It would not change a thing, I'm afraid."

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**The Tributes**

**District One Female: Aquila Titurius, 18 **

**District One Male: Amstel Hafelin, 18 **

**District Two Female: Kiera Wentz, 17 **

**District Two Male: Kilin Shicts, 18 **

**District Three Female: Cosmic McKee, 17**

**District Three Male: Dallon Argal, 12**

**District Four Female: Baye Darlucan, 17 **

**District Four Male: Maynor Richman, 14 **

**District Five Female: Briar Elway, 17 **

**District Five Male: Arden Quaid, 16 **

**District Six Female: Jetta Willis, 15 **

**District Six Male: Braden Griffin, 14 **

**District Seven Female: Amita Spruceford, 17 **

**District Seven Male: Ashidel Heprin, 15 **

**District Eight Female: Melinoe Casra, 16 **

**District Eight Male: Violan Jadeth, 18 **

**District Nine Female: Erin Callahan, 17 **

**District Nine Male: Goran Pavlov, 17 **

**District Ten Female: Calic Wefton, 15 **

**District Ten Male: Brett Draven, 17 **

**District Eleven Female: Fleur Aisley, 14 **

**District Eleven Male: Valerian Eldridge, 18**

**Capitol Female: Arissa Talos, 18 **

**Capitol Male: Cicero Lovett, 17**

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**The blog has now been posted.**

** cradletothegravehg . blogspot . ca / (-just remove the spaces)**

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**The artist theme for this story will be**_** Coldplay.**_

**Song: **_**Princess of China**_

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**From now on, a question or two will be asked at the end of each chapter which I would love for you to answer, and I also ask for a general review on my writing as well, if you would be so kind.**

**_From just the blog profiles, who are your six favourites?_**

**_Did you enjoy the prologue? How was the writing this time around?_**

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**Yes, I have decided I was a bit cruel to leave the blog unposted as I left for my hiatus which I am still on might I add. I got a lot done for NaNoWriMo today so I decided to post this as well. Please leave your thoughts and PM me any questions. Other than that, I will see you guys when I return in December.**


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